Poker games are well known in the casino industry. There are many different types of poker games, including stud poker, in which the player plays the hand dealt, and draw poker, in which the player has the opportunity to discard and replace cards in the player's hand. These games, and many other variations thereon, have been embodied in video gaming machines. For example, in the case of draw poker, the video poker machine or a central server selects the playing cards to be dealt to the player from a data structure storing data representing a deck of playing cards and displays the player's initial hand at a display.
The player selects the playing cards to “hold,” and the remaining playing cards from the player's initial hand are discarded and replaced from the deck of playing cards depleted of the cards already dealt. The replacements along with the held cards form a final hand.
The player's final hand is compared to a pay schedule which determines winning combinations and associated awards. Typically, these combinations represent the conventional ranked Poker hands such as a pair of Jacks or better, two pair, three of a kind, and so forth. If the player's final outcome matches a winning combination, the player is rewarded with the associated award. Otherwise, the final outcome is deemed to be a loss and the player's wager is retained by the gaming machine.
With the increasing popularity of video poker, there is a parallel demand for innovations and variations to attract new players and to keep existing players excited. Multi-hand and multi-wager games abound as do games with variations in pay tables and game strategies, such as joker and wild card games and games which skew pay tables away from pure probabilities.
Bingo games are likewise well known in the casino industry. In such games a player has a game “card” having a random distribution of numeric indicia, and the game operator conducts a lottery like selection of such indicia. As indicia values are selected, they are marked on the player card until a given pattern of selected locations emerges. The first player to achieve a desired pattern thereby wins the Bingo game.
Bingo is a highly mechanical game, with the requisite skill of marking selected indicia on a player's Bingo cards being a skill readily learned over time. Serious Bingo players often simultaneously manage dozens of cards, and managing of over a hundred cards is not unusual for the truly expert player, even in a non-automated environment. The very trait which makes it less attractive to a serious gambler, i.e. the absence of an analytical skill requirement, makes it attractive to the Bingo afficionado, who can derive the excitement of playing a high number of Bingo cards without the strain and effort typically associated with high stakes gambling.
Bingo, however, is typically a player-banked game, with the player wagers funding the prize pool. In casino operations, there is a desire to play house-banked games, or hybrid house-and-player-banked games, in which the player is playing at least partially against the casino, rather than simply against other players. Bingo is not conducive to such play, as a typical Bingo game will always yield a winner.
There is thereby a need in the art for a game which combines the house-banked nature of a video poker game with the ease of play and automation of a Bingo game. Such a game may allow for simultaneous play of multiple “cards” like Bingo, yet pay according to defined pay tables like video poker. In its automated implementation, simultaneous play of a hundred or more hands is feasible for players at all experience levels, and it is also reasonable to allow players the choice of either selection of the indicia with which to populate their cards, or allowing the game processor to do so in their stead.